The best from the worst

[Porcupine]

Hi everyone,
I love great photos, and I always wanted to take at least moderate quality pictures. I am not even a beginner, the best camera that I had was some crappy $200 camera. Eventually I lost it, and now I am ready to get a new one.
The thing is, I want to take good pictures, but I don't want to buy those huge cameras with lenses, the size of the lunch box. I want a small camera, the one that you probably don't even recognize as a camera, the one that can fit into the jacket pocket, the one that you can take with you on vacation with no need to carry the "lunch box". So that's where the question came up, what is the best of those crappy cameras? I am ready to spend around $600, but might think of spending even more (I got a good Christmas bonus ). The friend of mine has one of those small cameras from Nikon, and I really liked it due to pretty good quality, and the fact that it was very fast to turn on and to take pictures, and that's something that I am looking for, small, good quality, and fast. Need the expert advise. Remember that I am lame in that area, so don't through at me any fancy terms or abreviations, since I will not understand it.
Thanks in advance.

 

[RyanLilly]

Canon G9!
Google it, Jacket pocket size, "Lunch Box" quality.

If you buy online, click the B&H link on the top right of this page.

 

[aperture monologue]

I use my Canon g9 for backup, street photography and situations where I don't want to draw attention by carrying around an SLR (a big camera, the kind with different lenses).
I've liked it a lot. Naturally, an SLR will always be better as far as pure technical quality, speed and flexibility go, but in many situations I still feel that the G9 is my weapon of choice. It doesn't make people nervous and the macro mode (for photographing things that are very close) is so good that I don't need a macro lens for my SLR.
It's a great little camera. Not as small as some other cameras, but when it gets enough light (from the enviroment or the flash), the resulting images are nothing short of spectacular and definitely good enough for most purposes, even for professional use.